


Mind-Melding – A Cautionary Tale

by Pyreite



Series: Shades of Shepard [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Comedy, Confusion, F/F, F/M, Female Friendship, Friendship/Love, Mind Meld, Post-Mass Effect 3, Romantic Comedy, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:05:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3942973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyreite/pseuds/Pyreite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-ME3:  Liara enters into a mind-meld with Shepard hours before the final push to the Conduit, and sees more than she bargained for in Shepard's overactive subconscious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind-Melding – A Cautionary Tale

_**The last farewell on Earth before the final push to the Conduit** _

 

Shepard was forcibly thrown out of the mind-meld. She came too, head pounding, the blood rushing through her ears. “Liara!” she cried. Shepard was startled by the sharp jab to the shoulder. She rounded on her attacker, reacting on instinct, when a strident accusation stopped her cold.

 

“ _I can't believe you_ _thought about_ _something so personal_!”

 

Shepard unfurled her fingers, fist lowering. She squinted at Liara, utterly perplexed, when a scowling blue face came into focus.

 

“What are you talking about?” demanded Shepard.

 

Liara blushed a rich and vibrant violet. “The image, Shepard!” she complained. “Was at the forefront of your subconscious!” Liara bit her lip, head shaking, as she considered the potential fallout if Garrus ever found out. “ _Goddess_!” she cried, voice thick with embarrassment. “I'll never be able to look him in the eye again!”

 

Shepard ignored the throbbing in her temples. Breaking the mind-meld had given her one hell of a headache. “Liara!” commanded Shepard. “You better start making sense. Fast”. Shepard frowned when her friend gaped at her like a stunned pyjack.

 

“Garrus!” blurted Liara.

 

“What about, Garrus?” probed Shepard. She was confused when the purple flush in Liara's cheeks darkened. “You're flustered”, deduced Shepard. She couldn't quite understand how that was her fault. “Why?”

 

Liara groaned, burying her face in her hands. “I knew there was a risk”, she muttered to herself whilst Shepard stared in bewilderment. “But I never thought you would be this fixated”. Liara pouted unhappily, arms curling around herself.

 

Shepard reached for her, hand outstretched. She froze when Liara flinched.

 

“Don't touch me!”

 

Shepard let her hand drop back to her side. “I'm sorry, Liara, even though I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong”. She was genuinely hurt when the asari gave her the cold shoulder.

 

“Just go, Shepard. Please”, implored Liara. “You're just making it worse”.

 

Shepard headed for the nearest exit. “Yeah”, she replied. “I'll do that”. Shepard laid her palm on the holographic lock, never looking back, when the door slid open. She stepped into the hall, flinching when the door snapped closed behind her in a mechanical whir of hydraulics. Shepard walked for a few minutes, past broken windows, and walls riddled with bullet-holes.

 

She replayed the events over in her mind, searching for something that would explain Liara's odd behaviour. Shepard had been truly touched by the asari's invitation to mind-meld. She had agreed to participate, wanting to offer Liara what comfort she could before the final push to the Conduit. She hadn't expected to be cast out of the mind-meld and rejected in the same heartbeat. It stung to be treated like an unwanted guest by one of her closest and most trusted friends.

 

“Hey”, called a concerned flanging voice. “Are you okay?”

 

Shepard looked up in surprise. She glanced around herself, brows furrowing. She had found her way back to the room shared by Garrus, Primarch Victus, and the rest of Palaven's turian troops. Shepard rubbed her temples, the headache had dulled to a tolerable level thanks to her myriad Cerberus-grade cybernetic implants. “Yeah”, said Shepard. She smiled when Garrus strode across the floor, closing the distance between them.

 

“You sure?” coaxed her boyfriend.

 

Shepard nodded when Garrus looked her over, blue eyes scrutinising her face.

 

“I'm fine”.

 

“You're not”, chided the turian. “But since you're here. We might as well hug to keep up appearances. Turian-human liaisons aren't exactly a common occurrence, Shepard”.

 

She laughed when Garrus opened his arms. Shepard stepped inside, tucking her head beneath his chin. “Good idea. We can't let the world forget that we're together”. Shepard closed her eyes, savouring the moment, when Garrus's arms closed around her. “I wouldn't want those turian-dames to get any ideas. You're a claimed man, Garrus Vakarian”.

 

The amused flanging chuckle, filled with light and love, soothed Shepard's troubled conscience. “And you're a claimed woman too”, Garrus reminded her. “Kaidan might be over you, but he could still revert to his old Shepard-worshipping ways”. His hold on Shepard tightened. “Best not to chance it. A kiss might be a little more convincing”.

 

Shepard complied with a pleased giggle, raising her chin, mouth opening. Garrus met her halfway. All thought of Liara was erased from her mind when a hot turian tongue slid between her teeth. Garrus was a quick study. French-kissing was his forte.

 

_**Six Months – After the Reaper War** _

 

Shepard rubbed the tiredness from her eyes. She yawned, setting the datapad down, when Garrus emerged from the study. The drag of his feet, exaggerated by a slight limp, alerted her to his return. “So”, said Shepard. “How's Liara?” Her question was purely polite, but her bondmate heard the tinge of worry in her voice.

 

“Busy being the Shadowbroker”, declared Garrus. “Organising supply-runs, rescuing orphans, and spying on the squabbling politicians for us”.

 

Shepard smiled wanly. She hadn't spoken to Liara directly since that night in London. The rejection still stung even now, especially when she still didn't know what she'd done wrong. Liara hadn't been forthcoming with any sordid details. Shepard sighed when Garrus took a seat beside her, the bed dipping low beneath him.

 

“Did you two”, coaxed Garrus. “Have some kind of fight?”

 

Shepard hadn't told him about the mind-melding incident. It seemed too private, too personal to share with another person, even the one she loved best. “No”, she lied. “We've just been too busy doing our jobs to spend much time together”. Shepard avoided his gaze, pretending to read the contents of the datapad in her lap, when Garrus leaned forward.

 

“Right”, the turian said dryly. “And I suppose that has nothing to do with Liara being physically unable to look me in the eye during her vid-call”.

 

That got Shepard's attention. Her head turned. She focused on her bondmate with the unerring precision of a seasoned sniper. Shepard scrutinised his features. She frowned when Garrus's mandibles drew tight to his chin in an obvious show of turian discomfort.

 

“What happened?”

 

Garrus shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know. Soon as I accepted the call, Liara froze like a Pyjack caught on the business-end of a Krogan cannonade”. The turian shook his head confusedly. “I think she was waiting for me to do something rash”. Garrus readily placed his hand in Shepard's when she offered an open palm.

 

He was comforted when their fingers entwined.

 

“Like what?” asked Shepard.

 

Garrus chuckled. “For me to strip off my clothes and dance around naked”, he suggested cheekily. “I don't know, Shepard. Asari are just as confusing as humans sometimes”. He leaned over to nuzzle her cheek. Garrus paused when he saw the horrified widening of her eyes.

 

“Shepard?”, he called tentatively. “Something wrong?”

 

It all made perfect sense.

 

Shepard reddened when realisation dawned. No wonder Liara had given her the cold shoulder that night in London. She had been too busy remembering how Garrus looked when eager, naked, and aroused to consider the importance of what Liara had offered. The asari's inability to look him in the eye, since the end of the Reaper War, confirmed Shepard's worst fears. Liara T'soni vicariously _knew_ what Garrus Vakarian was packing under his hood.

 

Thanks to the asari mind-meld and Shepard's own eidetic memory.

 


End file.
